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A review by stefhyena
Moments of Truth: Twelve Twentieth-Century Women Writers by Lorna Sage
4.0
This was an interesting, if at times complex book. I had not read all the authors and their works mentioned in it (in fact almost none of them, and now I feel remiss in that). Reading about the authors and their possible agendas makes me want to go to all those works (or most of them) now and read them. I don't know if I will find in them the same things Sage does or not but it appears she has been friends with some of the authors so maybe knows some of the inside stories.
This book definitely won't be for everyone because it is quite nerdy in ton (for me that was fun) and it discusses whether an author (for example) has deconstructed something or deconstructed the act of deconstruction or failed to to either. I didn;t think unnecessarily long words were used but certainly the book delved deeply and complexly (ha ha neologism) into the texts and authors it analysed. There was a lot of reference also to other and older texts, sadly much of this went over my head. You'd have to be a literature scholar yourself to discuss these things with Sage on an equal footing, I had to take her word for some things.
There was a feminist perspective, but it was a wryly, almost tongue-in-cheek feminism not a flag waving in-your-face feminism so you don't have to be feminist yourself to appreciate these analyses. I am glad Sage put me onto so many female writers, some of which I was unaware of- when you study at school or university the reading lists are still overwhelmingly male, and from this it seems unnecessarily so.
Maybe it was stingy of me to only give this book four stars, I will consider that. Many books I read and immediately give away but I will hold on to this one a little longer and maybe dip into it again when I read some more of these authors (or reread people like Virginia Woolf).
Worth a look if you are a nerdy bookworm, especially one interested in feminist perspective.
This book definitely won't be for everyone because it is quite nerdy in ton (for me that was fun) and it discusses whether an author (for example) has deconstructed something or deconstructed the act of deconstruction or failed to to either. I didn;t think unnecessarily long words were used but certainly the book delved deeply and complexly (ha ha neologism) into the texts and authors it analysed. There was a lot of reference also to other and older texts, sadly much of this went over my head. You'd have to be a literature scholar yourself to discuss these things with Sage on an equal footing, I had to take her word for some things.
There was a feminist perspective, but it was a wryly, almost tongue-in-cheek feminism not a flag waving in-your-face feminism so you don't have to be feminist yourself to appreciate these analyses. I am glad Sage put me onto so many female writers, some of which I was unaware of- when you study at school or university the reading lists are still overwhelmingly male, and from this it seems unnecessarily so.
Maybe it was stingy of me to only give this book four stars, I will consider that. Many books I read and immediately give away but I will hold on to this one a little longer and maybe dip into it again when I read some more of these authors (or reread people like Virginia Woolf).
Worth a look if you are a nerdy bookworm, especially one interested in feminist perspective.